Pulling The Islamic Veil Over American Free Speech

The Obama Record: The administration's apologetic response to the attack on the U.S. embassy in Egypt reflects a governmentwide policy to censor language offensive to Islam.

As angry Muslim mobs stormed the American compound in Cairo Tuesday to allegedly protest an obscure anti-Muhammad video produced in California, embassy officials issued a statement condemning the "efforts of misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims."

Why would U.S. diplomats apologize to violent Muslims, on of all days 9/11, for America's sacred right of free speech? They were following a new protocol negotiated between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an alliance of 56 Muslim nations.

In December, Clinton met behind closed doors in Washington with OIC officials to hammer out "mechanisms" for enforcing a U.N. resolution the administration signed to fight "Islamophobia" in America and other Western nations.

The three-day session was closed to the public.

However, the Homeland Security and Defense departments and the FBI have since purged thousands of counterterrorism training materials that Muslim reviewers complained pushed "negative stereotypes" of Islam.

Sanitized material included anything defining jihad as "holy war." In addition, courses on radical Islam have been canceled, and some instructors and trainers have been fired or disciplined.

IBD has learned that the Army's elite training and doctrine command, known as TRADOC, has scrubbed all classes dealing with radical Islam. TRADOC oversees training of Army forces at more than 30 schools. U.S. Army intelligence officials say soldiers will now go into battle in Muslim nations with no training in how to spot jihadist activities and signs of Islamic radicalization.

What's more, the Justice Department has considered designating Islamophobia as a hate crime. Pressure to do so has come from the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Muslim groups identified by the FBI as fronts of the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

After receiving $300,000 from the OIC, CAIR in 2007 organized an Islamophobia workshop. At the event, OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu recommended "establishing an international instrument to criminalize acts of Islamophobia," including "legal measures against the defamation" of Muslim icons like Muhammad.

Now controlled by the Brotherhood, Egypt has spearheaded the Muslim alliance's censorship movement. The international Brotherhood is based in Cairo and works closely with the 57-member OIC, according to former special FBI agent John Guandolo.

The two groups, he says, have a plan to develop international blasphemy laws applying to speech deemed offensive to all Islamic doctrine — including violent jihad and barbaric "Shariah" legal code — as well as Islamic institutions, symbols and even historic figures.

The Obama Record: The administration's apologetic response to the attack on the U.S. embassy in Egypt reflects a governmentwide policy to censor language offensive to Islam.

As angry Muslim mobs stormed the American compound in Cairo Tuesday to allegedly protest an obscure anti-Muhammad video produced in California, embassy officials issued a statement condemning the "efforts of misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims."

Why would U.S. diplomats apologize to violent Muslims, on of all days 9/11, for America's sacred right of free speech? They were following a new protocol negotiated between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an alliance of 56 Muslim nations.

In December, Clinton met behind closed doors in Washington with OIC officials to hammer out "mechanisms" for enforcing a U.N. resolution the administration signed to fight "Islamophobia" in America and other Western nations.

The three-day session was closed to the public.

However, the Homeland Security and Defense departments and the FBI have since purged thousands of counterterrorism training materials that Muslim reviewers complained pushed "negative stereotypes" of Islam.

Sanitized material included anything defining jihad as "holy war." In addition, courses on radical Islam have been canceled, and some instructors and trainers have been fired or disciplined.

IBD has learned that the Army's elite training and doctrine command, known as TRADOC, has scrubbed all classes dealing with radical Islam. TRADOC oversees training of Army forces at more than 30 schools. U.S. Army intelligence officials say soldiers will now go into battle in Muslim nations with no training in how to spot jihadist activities and signs of Islamic radicalization.

What's more, the Justice Department has considered designating Islamophobia as a hate crime. Pressure to do so has come from the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Muslim groups identified by the FBI as fronts of the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

After receiving $300,000 from the OIC, CAIR in 2007 organized an Islamophobia workshop. At the event, OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu recommended "establishing an international instrument to criminalize acts of Islamophobia," including "legal measures against the defamation" of Muslim icons like Muhammad.

Now controlled by the Brotherhood, Egypt has spearheaded the Muslim alliance's censorship movement. The international Brotherhood is based in Cairo and works closely with the 57-member OIC, according to former special FBI agent John Guandolo.

The two groups, he says, have a plan to develop international blasphemy laws applying to speech deemed offensive to all Islamic doctrine — including violent jihad and barbaric "Shariah" legal code — as well as Islamic institutions, symbols and even historic figures.

Indeed, a recent OIC charter calls for imposing by 2015 "deterrent punishments" on critics of Islam in all countries, not just Muslim states.

Clinton has worked behind the scenes to deliver an Islamophobia-free America to the OIC. One of her closest aides, Huma Abedin, happens to be the daughter of prominent Brotherhood figures overseas, and she herself worked for a Brotherhood front group in college.

President Obama's envoy to the OIC also has Brotherhood ties. Rashad Hussain met with OIC officials in Saudi Arabia to help draft "a resolution to prohibit Islamophobia," which he describes as any "prejudice against Islam." He also helped draft the 2009 Cairo speech in which Obama declared his responsibility to "fight against negative stereotypes of Islam."

In effect, the Brotherhood controls debate about Islam and terrorism in America. Besides the obvious First Amendment issues, it poses grave national security concerns.

If military and law enforcement can't fully understand the nature and scope of the threat from Islamic extremists, both externally and internally, they may miss warning signs. They may fail to connect the dots.

Recall that extreme tolerance blinded the Army to even telegraphed threats from the Fort Hood jihadist before he massacred fellow U.S. soldiers.

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